#BestOfGT: On this day in 2002, Georgia Tech earned its first ACC tournament championship, and later that day, its first NCAA tournament berth.
With another stellar pitching performance by ACC Rookie of the Year Jessica Sallinger, the Georgia Tech softball team (49-16, 6-2 ACC) defeated North Carolina, 6-2, to capture its first-ever Atlantic Coast Conference softball championship at the Seminole Softball Complex.
Sallinger, who allowed just one earned run in 23 innings in the championship, allowed six hits and three walks to pick up the win. She moves to 25-7 on the season and now has 287 strikeouts on the season, which is a new Tech career record. She was named tournament MVP for her efforts.
Having won its first-ever Atlantic Coast Conference title earlier in the day, the Georgia Tech softball team’s (49-16, 6-2 ACC) record-setting Sunday concluded as the team learned it earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Championships, another first for the Jackets.
This trip to postseason is just another step in the remarkable turnaround of the Yellow Jacket program, which has won twice as many games as the 2001 edition of the team. After finishing 24-29 a year ago, the Jackets were picked to finish last in the ACC in a preseason poll of the league’s head coaches. Tech went from finishing five games under .500 a year ago to 33 games over this season.
